Jerusalem hails reimposition of US sanctions on Iran

As opposed to much of the Western world, Israeli senior officials cheer the reimposition of nuclear-related US sanctions on Iran as a historic turning point that could ultimately lead to the Islamic Republic’s downfall.

“This courageous decision will be remembered for generations,” Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman writes on his Twitter account.

US President Donald Trump has been sending mixed messages on Iran recently, imposing sanctions and threatening with war and also signaling readiness to negotiate without preconditions. But Liberman says he had “changed the direction regarding Iran.”

“No more agreements and subservience, but rather a determined struggle to stop the murderous ayatollah regime, which spreads terror, violence and hatred throughout the Middle East,” he vows.

Intelligence Minister Israel Katz says the sanctions, which will snap back at midnight US time, will leave Iran two choices: either it will fulfill the US administration’s requirements regarding its rogue nuclear program and regional aggression, as formulated in May by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, or it could risk a financial crisis and the fall of the regime.

“The first option is good, the second is excellent,” he tweets. “I welcome the US president’s tough and justified policies.”

Deputy Minister Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to the US, calls the return of the sanctions a “return to sanity.”

“No longer will a regime that supports world terror, massacres hundreds of thousands of civilians, demands Israel’s destruction, oppresses its own people, and lies about its nuclear program be rewarded,” he tweets.

— Raphael Ahren